The New Renaissance Student

A op-ed columnist for the New York Times, whose perspective I generally appreciate, wrote recently how books are a better medium for learning then the Internet, and he provides valid studies and reasons for this conclusion. Research has definitely made the connection between books and student and even economic success. What I wasn't expecting was that he further stated that the Internet doesn't foster deeper learning AND that literary culture (vs. Internet culture) is better at creating students who can distinguish the important from the unimportant.

Here is a larger excerpt from the piece, "The Medium is the Medium" by David Brooks http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/opinion/09brooks.html

"These different cultures foster different types of learning. The great essayist Joseph Epstein once distinguished between being well informed, being hip and being cultivated. The Internet helps you become well informed — knowledgeable about current events, the latest controversies and important trends. The Internet also helps you become hip — to learn about what’s going on, as Epstein writes, “in those lively waters outside the boring mainstream.”

But the literary world is still better at helping you become cultivated, mastering significant things of lasting import. To learn these sorts of things, you have to defer to greater minds than your own. You have to take the time to immerse yourself in a great writer’s world. You have to respect the authority of the teacher.

Right now, the literary world is better at encouraging this kind of identity. The Internet culture may produce better conversationalists, but the literary culture still produces better students.

It’s better at distinguishing the important from the unimportant, and making the important more prestigious."

As an advocate of information literacy instruction at public libraries, I feel like I am witness every day to patrons disengaging from information I make available to them, in both books and the Internet. And by disengaging, I mean exactly that. When I locate something, often all patrons want is the information. They don't want it contextualized, evaluations explained or reviews offered. There is no dialogue, just a transfer. I find these transactions somewhat difficult because I really do want to do my job, not just give out information because I says it's good.

I might agree with Mr. Brooks that a scholar must have a broad depth of knowledge that will be gathered from reading many books, but not all students are scholars. However, all students should be able to discern what is good and useful information from information that is inaccurate and biased. And I think the tools of technology offer many lessons on how one area of information is related to another area of information, on how information is labeled and organized, how to build a network of reliable sources and why you should evaluate information, of any kind. I don't think that books are the medium that creates better students as much as students who can be independent thinkers and believe in their own abilities.

Getting students (of all ages) to approach learning with a sense of play and detective work I believe is a route to creating a necessary desire to be information literate. And, I believe that the tools of technology can foster this desire, be the medium if you will, perhaps better than books.